Edible French Garden. Rosalind Creasy
plants.
When harvesting, cut off the young artichoke bud, about 4 inches below the bud, before it starts to open. The younger the bud, the more tender it is and the more of it is edible.
Varieties
'Imperial Star': 90 to 100 days from transplants, thornless, sweet flavor, meaty hearts and almost chokeless, easiest to grow from seed and harvest the first season
'Violetto': Italian variety that produces purple artichokes, beautiful in the garden, very small buds often eaten whole, cooking for more than two minutes turns them green
How to prepare: The bud is most often served whole. Young, fresh artichokes can be eaten without removing the choke (fuzzy, inedible center). But you must remove the choke from mature artichokes. To prepare an artichoke, cut the top inch off to remove any thorns and the inedible part of the "leaves." Immediately rub the cut edges with lemon juice to avoid discoloration. Then peel back the outside layer of leaves with your hand. (You can eat the young, tender artichokes raw, by thinly slicing the heart and serving it drizzled with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.) Steam or boil the artichokes until a knife can be inserted easily into the bottom of the choke. The artichoke is now ready to serve as is or as an edible container for a sauce or seafood; or only the hearts may be eaten. When eating a whole artichoke bud, pull off the outside leaves and use your teeth to scrape out the flesh. The hearts are used as an hors d'oeuvre or as an addition to salads or casseroles. Whole artichokes or artichoke hearts are popular served warm with hollandaise sauce or lemon butter, or cold with a vinaigrette or mayonnaise.
The French have taken artichokes to culinary heights that include pairing them with asparagus, fresh peas, sorrel, and even truffles and foie gras. The hearts are sometimes pureed; other times they're served with a sauce or fried. A typical dish would be artichoke hearts stuffed duxelles (a mixture of finely chopped mushrooms) and covered with béchamel sauce. In southern France two appetizers of note use artichoke hearts. In one the heart is served cold with olive oil, garlic, and herbs. The other involves the immature purple artichoke served raw: the slightly bitter bud is cut into quarters, the stem end is dipped in salt, and the dish is accompanied by bread and sweet butter.
ASPARAGUS
(asperges) Asparagus officinalis
Asparagus are a passion in France. The French enjoy both green and purple varieties and have taken their preparation to a high art by blanching some of the green varieties in the ground to get pristine, fat white spears.
Asparagus is an herbaceous perennial, dormant in winter, whose edible spears show themselves early, heralding an end to winter. The shoots that are not cut for eating develop into airy, ferny foliage plants 3 to 5 feet high.
Asparagus, with nasturtiums in the foreground
Asparagus
How to grow: Asparagus grows in most climates except for the very coldest and in hot humid areas.
Asparagus plants need full sun. Although you can start them from seed, only do so when you want varieties not available as crowns, as planting year-old rooted crowns (the base of the plant plus the roots) produces a crop a year faster. A family of four needs thirty to forty plants. Asparagus needs a deep organic soil, with a pH of 6.5 to 7. Excellent drainage is critical.
In the early spring, spade the soil and turn it over. It is imperative to remove perennial weeds. For thirty to forty plants, spade up the area as follows: dig two trenches 6 to 8 inches deep (10 to 12 inches in coldest areas), 12 inches wide, about 20 feet long, and 3 to 4 feet apart. Amend the soil in the trenches with compost or aged manure and 4 pounds of bonemeal or rock phosphate worked 8 inches into the soil. Then place the crowns in the bottom, 15 inches apart, with their roots well spread out. Cover them with 2 to 3 inches of soil. As the shoots emerge, continue to fill the trench with soil.
Use organic mulches 4 to 6 inches deep to provide nutrients, help control weeds, and conserve moisture. In normal soil, annual applications of compost or modest amounts of chicken manure are all that is needed to renew the bed. After the first season only moderate watering is needed during the growing season. In the arid Southwest, to encourage dormancy, do not irrigate in winter. For information on blanching for white asparagus, see "How to Grow a French Garden" (page 9).
Asparagus beetles are generally the most serious pest. If you keep the bed free of beetles from planting time onward, you can keep them out with floating row covers. If the bed is already infested, fall cleanup helps remove some of the breeding adults: apply the formulation of Bt made to control asparagus beetles. A fungus disease called asparagus rust is an occasional problem associated with very damp weather. Cercospora leaf spot can be a serious problem in the Southeast. Plant resistant varieties, such as 'Jersey Knight' (if asparagus rust is a problem) and 'Jersey Gem' (for cercospora problems). If numerous, gophers can be a serious problem. Plant the crowns in wire baskets to protect them. Perennial weeds can take over and crowd out a bed of asparagus in a single season, so be sure to remove any weeds as soon as they appear.
Harvest the spears by snapping them off an inch or so above soil level. No harvest is recommended the first year. In the second year limit the harvest to three weeks. From the third year on, the season lasts six to eight weeks, depending on the weather. With effort, you can lengthen the harvest season. Harvest your asparagus normally for the first two weeks. Then select two or three spears per plant and let them develop. Identify them with twine and continue to harvest the new spears. The spears you leave to mature will nourish the plant while you continue the harvest. Stop harvesting when the new spears emerge thinner than a pencil. To prevent stressing the plants, fertilize them with fish meal after the harvest. In mild climates cut down plants in the fall when they turn brown; in cold climates wait until early spring because the stalks help maintain a snow cover.
Varieties
Purchase asparagus as seeds or one-year-old rooted crowns, which are available as bare roots in early spring. Local nurseries generally carry varieties that are national standards or are particularly well suited to your area. The new hybrid, all-male plants are a great development since they are usually twice as productive as female plants.
'Argenteuil': old French variety, traditionally blanched for white asparagus, available only as seeds
'Jersey Knight': large, tender spears with purple touches, adaptable to a variety of climates, high yielder, high tolerance to fusarium and rust diseases, all-male plants available bare root
'Purple Sweet' ('Sweet Purple'): old variety with sweet, tender deep burgundy spears; available as bare root plants
'UC 157': developed for moderate- and mild-winter areas, USDA Zones 5 and up; large, flavorful spears; fusarium-tolerant, rust-resistant; predominantly male plants, available as bare root plants
How to prepare: Bend a harvested spear into a circle; it will snap at the point where it gets tough. Use the tender top part of the spear and discard the tough lower section. Most aficionados favor the simple approach to cooking asparagus; they like the stalks steamed or boiled just until tender and served with salt, pepper, and a touch of butter. Leftovers can be served with a vinaigrette the next day or put in an omelet for breakfast.
French cooks usually peel asparagus before cooking it. Peel off the skin with a knife or vegetable peeler up to where the stalk becomes tender. When asparagus are dressed, the accompaniments are most often hollandaise sauce, lemon butter, or a vinaigrette. Asparagus are also used in quiches, crepes, salads, soups, soufflés, and timbales. When cooking purple asparagus, simmer them in an inch of water with ¼ cup lemon juice or vinegar to help maintain the color, or they will turn green.
BEANS
(haricots)
BUSH AND POLE BEANS
Phaseolus vulgaris
The bean most closely associated with France is the haricot